Adobe Flash is Officially Dead

Earlier this week, Adobe announced something that has been in the works since the iPhone first came out: the death of Flash. While most of the web has adapted, there are still online portfolios and other websites that run on Flash. Adobe will stop updating and supporting Flash at the end of 2020, and recommends that users migrate their websites over to HTML5, WebGL, or WebAssembly.

This gives those that are still utilizing Flash a few years to migrate over to those platforms, in order to ensure that those websites are more in line with open web standards.

For those unfamiliar with the reasons why Flash has been in decline over the years, it’s primarily due to the various security flaws that existed within it, making it difficult for Adobe to release patches fast enough in order to keep up with security threats from hackers or malware.

There are also a myriad of performance issues, with tests showing that Flash can slow down your computer down by almost 80 percent.

Last year, Google had announced that Google Chrome would default to HTML5, as well as banning Flash in display ads.

This comes on the heels of Firefox blocking Flash by default following several exploited vulnerabilities until a patch was issued.

However, when iOS devices were first released, this truly signaled the beginning of the end, as the only way to use Flash on those devices was to download third-party applications that enabled it.

Consider this a fair warning to ensure your website doesn’t get left behind. There are many services, particularly for portfolio websites, that are purely built on HTML5. If you were thinking about making an upgrade, now is the right time to do it.